Letters from Aliens
by TempeJill
Summary: It's been done before, the letter from Aliens in a Spaceship, but I had to put in my point of view on what it might have said. Warning: This is an alternate ending to what really happened... there is major character death. Oh, and I don't own Bones.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so this is an ALTERNATE ending to Aliens in a Spaceship, one of my favorite episodes. Warning, it does not end happily, and there is major character death. It will be a two-shot. **

* * *

**Letters from Aliens**

Temperance takes a deep breathe and presses the pen to the paper. Her handwriting isn't as neat as usual, given the circumstances, and she frowns whenever the pen skids or the words don't form correctly.

But that isn't the important part. The important thing is what the words themselves say. What she's forcing herself to write because... because maybe this will be the last memory of her anyone will get to have.

Hodgins watches as she signs her name and folds the paper with careful hands. Despite her precision, her hands still shake uncontrollably as she makes the last fold. He reaches forward and slides the paper towards him to do it for her, handing it back a second later.

She nods her thanks and then sighs and tucks it into her jacket pocket. He's already written his farewells; most certainly there was a long letter to Angela. She hopes Hodgins put in that he really loved her, because although she put that in her own message to Ange to make sure her friend got to know, she'd rather if it was read in Hodgins words first. She's certain Angela will read Hodgins message first; she knows that her best friend loves him back.

Hodgins murmurs, "Just think, they thought those other victims were aliens. And now... now we are like aliens too. Have you ever felt like this?"

"What? This far away?" she whispers. She shakes her head in response. "No, never like this... never."

She thinks about how far away she does indeed feel. Not only in actuality but in mind frame as well. Booth, Angela, Zach, and Cam are all somewhere very far away, in the real world. In a few days they will have given up, she realizes. They will be forced to go on with their lives and go back to work, doing what they usually do. They will never understand exactly what happened to her and Hodgins, how they slowly ran out of air, how they tried all sorts of things to extend their air supply and call for help, how the enclosing frame of the car seemed more suffocating than the thinness of the air and the impending doom... even if they got out of here she was certain she'd never forget this feeling. This helpless terror.

She feels horrible for Hodgins, who is so much worse off than her. Not only does he have extensive and incredibly painful injuries, but he's also never had anything like this happen to him. She's been kidnapped before; she knows what its like to have her life so close to an end.

He's never been forced to experience this.

She wonders briefly, feeling her thoughts start to swirl and her vision start to go out of focus, where Booth is right now. The message... they must not have been able to decipher it. He must be blaming himself, she thinks sadly. He always does that, with his alpha-male tendencies...

She finds herself hoping they will find her and Hodgins before they become like the Kent boys. She doesn't want them to have to identify them through DNA testing or facial reconstruction rather than by just sight. Not that they wouldn't immediately know who they _must_ be just by the fact they were buried alive.

Hodgins invites her to join him in the backseat, and he offers his hand for her to shake in farewell. She looks at him, and a slight sob escapes her throat as she leans forward and wraps her arms around him instead in a tight embrace. She closes her eyes and feels a few tears slide down her cheek. There is sorrow in her eyes as she pulls away and then holds up her end of the wire. Their hands shake as they push the wire tips together.

And then nothing happens. The explosives don't work. She drops the wire and buries her head in her hands.

"I'm sorry," she whispers to Hodgins.

He shakes his head, "It's alright. We've done all we can; if it doesn't work then it must not be meant to. There's nothing we can do anymore."

She nods, more tears sliding down her cheeks. She sees tears in his eyes too.

They've failed.

She feels her strength failing and fights to keep her eyes open but has no success. They slide shut, and then she knows no more.

_

* * *

__Two days later._

Booth stands to the side, his face a blank mask; emotionless. The digging crew is working all around. He doesn't interrupt them. There's no need to be frantic, no need to have the slightest bit of hope like he might have two days ago.

He'd asked the squints, or what was left of them, if they'd wanted to come. Angela stood beside him now. Cam and Zach were back at the lab, working. Cam wasn't the type to get all mushy and sorrowful when she could try to keep everything business-like. She'd spent the past few days upset, so now, when there might be a break in the case, she was staying focused. Zach... well it was expected that he wouldn't see the importance in coming.

Angela; she was a real mess. She'd been crying practically non-stop for the past few days. Right now she was biting her lip, and although there were no tears streaking her cheeks, her eyes were red and puffy.

When the crane hauls the car into view she breaks into all out sobs. He puts an arm around her and she buries her face in his shoulder. He watches silently as his Bones' car is lifted from underground. The windows are covered with dirt; he can't see anything inside.

The crew is shouting to one another and space is cleared. The crane lowers the vehicle down a short ways from the hole.

Booth carefully untangles Angela from him. She doesn't protest, and she wisely stays behind, shaking slightly, as he walks away from her and towards where he knows what to expect.

The crew stays out of his way as he approaches.

"Better not try to open the doors just yet," A man advises him quietly. He nods silently and reaches out a tentative hand to scrape the filth from the driver's seat window. He clears a circle, his mind all the while flashing back to watching Bones clean the window of the vat they found the other victims in. He squints and peers in. There's her seat, but its empty. There are wires hooked to the wheel and the other controls. There are cell phones and pens all over the passenger seat. He can't see the backseat from this spot.

He steps to the window to the right and takes a deep breath before rubbing at the dirty glass. It's too dark; not much is visible. He faintly sees the outline of a human figure, completely still. His heart clenches. He steps back, "Open it," he orders. He's surprised at how calm his voice is, given that inside he's filled with a million different emotions at once.

A crew member hesitantly tries the handle. Unshockingly, it doesn't budge. The crew quickly sets to work and a moment later a wedge pries the metal apart. The door pops open, and they hurry back to give the FBI agent room.

He steps around the door and bends down to look inside.

Hodgins is closest. The squint is lying there limply in front of him. His hair is a mess, his skin pale. Booth knows he's dead. He'd known it before he'd even seen him, though. He'd known there would be no rescue today.

Now he forces himself to look past the man to see the other side of the backseat. She's facing him, her eyes closed. Her face looks peaceful, as though perhaps she's only sleeping. She's not. Temperance is dead.

He can see the tear streaks on her face, and her hair has fallen across her face. He has the strangest urge to tuck it behind her ear, but he doesn't. He can't reach her, anyways. She looks like he remembers, the only difference being that she's a bit paler, her soft ivory skin no longer healthy and vibrant. Her lips are cracked, and he sees the empty water bottles on the floor. They must have run out of water long before they ran out of air. He faintly notices that the back of the seat has been torn open; they had managed to get more air. Not enough.

Not enough.

He wants to hold her, he wants to see those beautiful blue eyes open, and that wonderful soft smile form on her face. He wants to run his hands through that long brown hair as the sunlight dances on it, making it auburn. He wants to have her back. He wants to have Bones back.

But he can't. He can never have her again.

She's gone.

He steps around to the other side as they pry open that door. He wants to be the one to take her out. The crew immediately takes over on Hodgins' side. They pull him out and load him onto a gurney.

He hears a soft cry from Angela, "Jack!" and does his best to block out her words, but fails. "Oh, Hodgins... no..." Her voice cuts into him like a knife to the heart. He feels the injury cut so deep that he can hardly stand upright. He grips the side of the car and then gets hold enough of himself to lean into the car on the passenger side.

She's right there, right in front of him. When he reaches his arms out and brushes her skin he half expects her to stir, to jump in alarm and turn to glare at him for disturbing her. She's ice cold. He pulls her to him; she's limp and lifeless.

It hits him hard, again and again.

Temperance is dead. Bones is dead.

He climbs further into the car to get her, and ends up sitting in the seat, the seat that she must have spent a good portion of her last moments in. He can smell her scent wreathing around him, along with the stench of the car, but he blocks out all else but her.

Tears form in his eyes as he sits there, holding her in his arms. All the things he wanted to say were lost to the winds of fate, gone in one swift moment. His thoughts become a cloud of sorrow and despair.

Love, come and gone. Never truly real in the first place.

Where was she, his beautiful Bones? This was not her, lying in his arms so empty and silent. Where was her rebellious spirit, where were her flame-tipped words of argument, telling him she didn't need his help? Where were those thoughtful ice-blue eyes now? Surely not still behind those soft eyelids, closed so peacefully. Her hair brushes his arm, and he catches a strand of it gently between his fingers. The light from the sun outside reflects off of it as he tilts it, and it glows beautiful auburn. He lets it fall back and then he cautiously brushes the rest of it from her face, stroking his fingers down her cheek.

No... no she couldn't really be gone.

"Sir?" A voice murmurs softly from outside. He brushes the tears away and carefully pulls himself from the car, still holding her.

Angela lets out a fresh sob as her best friend is brought into view.

He lays her down on the gurney they have brought over, and very slowly releases his hold on her.

She looks so small, so fragile. Her head falls to one side as his arm comes out from under it. One arm is draped over her chest, the other has fallen by her side. When he takes a step back he feels as though he has been pulled under the surface of a freezing ocean. Waves are tearing at him, throwing him back and forth, ripping him apart. He cannot find the surface.

He does not want to.

There _is_ no surface.

There is nothing anymore.

They draw the white sheet up over her, and he continues to stare at where her beautiful, gentle face was even as it vanishes. They wheel her away, and still his eyes stay trained on the one spot. Even when the crew is long gone, he does not move.

He turns back to the car finally and sees a single white sheet of paper lying on the seat where it must have fallen when he was getting out. He cautiously reaches in and picks it up. The handwriting on the outside is familiar, and it burns into his brain as his heart beats faster.

These are Bones' words. Her words to him.

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**Okay, wasn't that sad? :( **

**I'll add the second half soon, and don't worry, the letter will be read. **

**Review please??**


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, so here's the second half. Hope you enjoy :)**

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_These are Bones' words. Her words to him._

With shaking hands he opens it. There are actually two papers, folded together. The first is addressed to him. He begins to read, not bothering to hide his emotions as his eyes melt further with every word.

_Booth,_

_I suppose most people might use your full name in such a letter, but I cannot. You will always be Booth to me. And I will always be Bones to you, I'm certain. I understand that nickname now; it is your way of showing you care, I suppose. I wouldn't have it any other way, and I would never have let anyone else get away with calling me that._

_I'm sorry. I'll say that right away, and I really hope you can comprehend just how much truth I put behind those words. I've always been afraid of losing people I care about, and now I've gone and become the one doing the leaving. It surprised me, you know, how long you stayed with me. I was always afraid you might leave, that you might finally get tired of me and how I'm so cold and unfeeling, but you never did. You have no idea how much that meant to me._

_You were the only person I could ever work with, Booth, and the only person I would want to work with as well. You gave me a chance that no one else did; you let me go out in the field and try a life outside the lab for a change. I don't think you ever understood what that meant to me, getting to be a part of the world everyone else lives in and watching you and your expertise with understanding people. I never really was able to figure out how you could do that, how you could tell what others might be thinking just by looking at them and their facial expressions... I was never able to do that. I really respected you, despite the fact that, as you said many times, I lack people skills. That's probably why I never actually told you before._

_I hope I'm doing this right, since I have neither you nor Ange to consult on how exactly to say goodbye. It's one of the many things that I don't comprehend as well as other people do. Nonetheless I really hope you can realize what I'm trying to say here, that I never wanted to hurt you or any of the others and I wish that there was a way to reverse it all._

_You're a good man, Booth, I want you to know that too._

_I've included everything Hodgins and I were able to figure out that may help the investigation in my other letter. Make sure to collect the piece of evidence that I put in between the pages of my book, too; we believe it may be able to help you._

_Keep everyone together, please. Zach will be able to cope, he's almost as talented at compartmentalizing as I myself am, but it's the others I'm not sure about. Angela will be upset I'm sure. Hodgins loved her, he told me down here. As an alpha-male I'm sure you would do this anyways, but please comfort her and don't lose touch with our squints. Work with the new forensic anthropologist the Jeffersonian will get. Maybe Zach will fill my place; I hope so._

_I still don't believe you to be right about heaven or religion or any of that, so I won't suggest that I could possibly be watching you or those other things that I've heard people say to children about their grandparents when they pass away. But, despite that, I do believe that a part of a person can stay behind when they die; the part that others remember. When we talked about my mother and we went to her grave I did feel better by remembering her. I'd like it if you did that; if you didn't forget me._

_Thank you, for everything, for just being nice to me, I guess. I can't say that I will miss you, because I will be gone, but I can say that I do miss you, writing this. And I'm sorry that I won't ever see you again. You were my partner, but also my best friend._

_Sincerely, Temperance Bones Brennan_

The tears fall thickly, staining the edges of the paper and making some of the ink run. He carefully brushes away the liquid and holds the letter away so as not to damage it further.

Angela sees it and steps towards him, her eyes wide.

He hands her the second letter without reading it. It is addressed to her. She begins to read, her eyes widening and tears flowing rapidly. When she is done she lets out a strangled sob and passes it back to him, covering her face in her hands.

He puts his arm around her gently and lets her cry on him as he reads.

_Dear Ange,_

_I am so sorry. So very sorry. I'm sure you can believe the truth in what those words say since you know quite well that I'm not great at apologizing and don't do it often. I never would have gotten this far without you, I hope you know that. You helped me through so much, and you made me see the world in a totally different way. You showed me, through all our forced shopping trips and late night girl chats, how to have fun._

_You and the others became my family; you took me in and accepted me for who I am. I hate that I'll never see any of you again._

_Hodgins loves you. I doubt that will shock you, since you are so observant. After all, you could always tell when I liked someone or when I was happy for a particular reason. I'm really sorry about that, sorry that you'll never get to be with him. But... Ange I'm not sure how to put this. Usually you'd help me with this sort of thing... You are the kind of person who will be strong and will find love again. I know you will Ange, I'm certain of it. Like I told you before, I promise with my head and my heart. The heart thing was something you and Booth taught me, which I never would have understood on my own, so I'm in your thanks._

_Now, Booth, I'd appreciate if you stopped reading this, since the rest is for Ange only._

His eyes go wide in shock. She'd expected that he'd read Ange's letter in addition to his own. She's so... she'd been so much better at figuring people out than she'd given herself credit for. He folds the letter, deciding to respect his partner's wishes.

But Angela has seen him stop reading; she's composed herself considerably in the past few minutes. She takes the letter and opens it back up.

"Finish," she whispers, handing it back to him.

He frowns and then takes it back. If Ange wants him to... and his curiosity _is_ killing him... He starts back where he left off.

_Ange, you were right, and I figured I'd give you the satisfaction of knowing the truth since you'd never forgive yourself if you thought you hadn't gotten through to me and all your time had been wasted. Not that you couldn't still think that since nothing got to come of it... but I just thought this would be better than absolutely nothing._

_Yes, I was jealous when Booth had Tessa around. Thanks for being such a great friend and never relenting when that topic came around... I think my life was better for understanding my feelings rather than denying them. Not that I ever stopped denying them out loud. Just not to myself, which is probably the most important thing._

_If you were here you'd tell me I was rambling on and avoiding the point. Truth is, I really don't want to write it, but I will anyways, for you. Yes, I loved Booth. Please don't tell him... I don't want him to feel any worse, and I know he doesn't feel the same way; we're just friends, just partners._

_And please... don't miss me too much, because I know you well enough to know how you'll probably react. Hodgins and I are going to try to blow our way out of here in a moment, and if it doesn't work then I don't even know if you'll ever find this letter. I hope you will. I hope something of my final moments might reach you so that you will be able to know what happened. If the explosion doesn't work, we will simply fall asleep. And if it does work, but we aren't blown free, we won't suffer. Don't worry about that part, okay, Ange?_

_Live your life, Angela, and be happy._

_Love, your best friend, Temperance Brennan_

Below that is written a bunch of case-related information, also in her handwriting. That's not what interests or shocks him though. That can wait till later. Right now his eyes are trained on the part that she had specifically asked him not to be told about.

_Yes, I loved Booth_.

She what? She _loved_ him?

...And she had thought he didn't feel the same way.

Regret burns through him like a wildfire, creating a wave of pain worse than the drowning feeling he experienced earlier. _Why didn't I tell her?_ he berates himself. In his mind he is again seeing her beautiful face with that soft smile, her eyes sparkling as she gazes back at him. And both had been denying the same thing at the same time.

"I'm sorry, Booth," Ange whispers.

"She..." he whispers.

Ange nods quietly and hugs him again.

He's never felt more lost. She loves him. Loved him, he corrects bitterly. She's gone...

* * *

_Two weeks later._

They all stand in that line that they've been in so often before. Never has he been in the line for one of them though. Him and her had stood together so many times, just like this, when a case had touched them and they'd gone to see the victim put to rest.

Now there were two caskets in front of him; in front of the group of them.

Angela stands to his right, sobbing her eyes out on Zach's shoulder. Zach doesn't appear to know _what_ to do; he looks dazed. Cam is on his left, biting her lip and staring straight ahead, her arms crossed firmly across her chest.

Booth keeps his gaze focused straight ahead as well; if he focuses too much on Angela's pain he might break out crying himself. His eyes are already watering as it is.

Caroline is listing all of Bones' degrees and achievements, but he finds it hard to listen. That was the other part of her, the Dr. Brennan part. It's the Bones part, the soft yet super intelligent part that argued with him and made him care so much all at the same time that he will always remember... will always miss.

The speech turns to Hodgins, and Ange breaks into a fresh wave of sobs. Booth reaches over and gently pats her back. She pulls away from Zach and turns to cry on his shoulder instead. Zach looks even more confused and lost now that he is standing alone.

Caroline places a rose on each coffin, and Booth steps forward out of the line, placing a daffodil and a daisy on Bones' and a rose, the same as Caroline's, on Hodgins'.

He stands there for a long time, just staring at the shining black casket as one by one the others step forward to place roses. He watches as Angela gently places a white rose for Hodgins, brushing tears away as she carefully strokes a hand along the edge of the casket and then, shaking, moves to stand next to Booth again.

Together they watch as their two friends, two loves, are lowered into the ground. Gone to them forever. He is lost, he is floating in a black hole of pure despair. He is with her as the dirt is packed in on top, he is in that car as her last breath leaves her, he is holding her close as her cerulean blue eyes slide shut, he is beside her as she fades... as she vanishes. She is pulled from his grasp, she disappears into darkness, into the folds of a blanket of a moonless midnight.

Stars explode before him, blinding his vision, and everything in front of him becomes a blur as the tears in his eyes overflow. He does not try to hide it. No one here will blame him. They are all crying anyways. Even Zach, he notes later, has a redness around his eyes.

The days are all the same. They are all one long day. They are all her, all her face and those blue, blue eyes. All of them, all of everything, all of the world, is trapped in the infinite moment of her last breath, of her last moments.

It is wrong. Explicitly wrong; she should not be gone.

She deserves so much more; she deserves a full life, a life with her family and with her friends. She should have gotten to find her father again, should have gotten the chance to reconnect with Russ. Her life should not have ended.

But it did.

It did.

He no longer knows where he is, who he is, what he's meant to be doing.

Years could have passed, or it could have been mere hours. Life, as impossibly as it sounds, went on. It couldn't have... yet somehow it has.

It should have stopped. The whole world _should_ have stopped.

And then, one day as he sits in his office, his head resting on his hands as he stares blankly at his desk, his gaze only able to focus on the framed photo of a smiling, laughing Bones and himself. A past life. A life that couldn't have existed, it was so perfect.

"Booth." A voice, soft and caring. A voice he never could have heard. A voice that never existed, that never belonged to him because it is gone. Because he lost it.

He looks up nonetheless.

A woman stands in his office. She wears a well-fitted shirt and a pair of jeans. Her auburn hair frames her face and her eyes are beautiful, wonderful blue. So blue he wants to never look away, wants to just be lost and stay there. A faint smile, a smile that makes his heart nearly stop, forms on her lips.

"Bones?" he whispers.

She smiles wider, showing her straight white teeth.

He only stares. There are no words.

"I'm sorry," she whispers calmly, and her eyes show the truth of it.

"I loved you," he says the first thing that comes to mind, the words that have echoed through his mind for all eternity since her loss. The words he should have said all that time ago.

"I know," she responds. "But, Booth," her voice saying his name makes him melt and the pain feel all that stronger. He has missed it more than anything, almost as much as those eyes and that gentle smile. "You can't stay like this. I want... I want you to wake up."

"I am awake," he says, then frowns. He can't be; he's talking to Bones. There's no way it's real. It's too good to be real. Not that it matters. Not while he can see her, hear her.

She shakes her head with a knowing smile, "In the literal sense you are. Not in the mental sense. Go back to the Jeffersonian; see Ange and Zach and Cam. Work on cases. I wanted you to remember me, and now I want you to move on. Don't forget, since I know you can't, but live. It's not right for you to do this."

"I... I can't..." he whispers.

"I think you can," she responds. She walks closer to him, and leans over his desk. He feels a faint brush over his lips, and her sweet scent washes over him. His eyes slide shut, and when he opens them she is gone. But yet, she is still there, with him. He gets to his feet and obediently does what he is told; he goes to the Jeffersonian, and he can now feel her as though she walks by his side the entire time.

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**So, was that heartbreaking enough for everyone? Maybe it deserves... I don't know... a review? Please?**


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